No 007 you are spot on, murphy and gibbs certainly would not be available at th tail end of the draft,but a 'REASONABLE' player named James Hird was.

8 wins would be more than enough IMO for Pagan to keep his job. I dread a new coach coming in and changing our current game plan ala Ross Lyon has at the Saints. Go Pagan!!!!

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Mjonc signing off at 8888

Pagan belief part of the turnaround - Tony Shaw

I can recall Pagan saying we would struggle without Stevens and Betts in The Australian just two weeks ago .

The journos will be on and off the blues like fleas.

Unfortunately expectations get too high too quickly for journos and supporters alike. We are chugging along ok. If you look at last weeks game we played against a pathetic Port Adelaide team yet they still won more clearances, had more scoring shots and more inside 50s.

Our 70 something scoring efficiency far eclipsed their 40 something. That was the overwhelming difference.
If we are going to need to kick some of those fantastic snaps every week to win games, we'll be disappointed very quickly.

I'm hoping for incremental improvement. To show that we are improving as a team over a more prolonged period.
If the opposition come up with tactics to halt our style of play, will we be able to adapt and counter it?
Can we translate this current style of play to a more balanced approach?

Its great to get the ball inside 50 on 55 odd occasions but if you're conceding more every week, its not a recipe for sustainable success.

By all means be enthused and excited by the Blues winning but dont live or die by every loss.
In my opinion, its more about where we'll be in 2 years and what methods we learn and construct now to get there.
Tonights result wont determine if we're on the road to the finals or back in the toilet.

In saying that, I'm tipping the Blues by 15 points!

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Pessimist. I tipped us to win by 45

Great post BV.

Carlton played well, but Port also played below par.

Will be interesting to see though if some of the confidence that 2 wins in a row generates might lift the backline and midfield defensively that extra bit the team needs if it is going to win regularly.

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|♥♥♥♥♥♥| http://www.blueseum.org |♥♥♥♥♥♥|

I agree. Great post BV.

A great reality check.

I don't really care how many games we win this year, I have no expectation when it comes to # of wins in 2007; every win is a bonus. I only care about finals and flags; in the meantime I just want to see our kids grow and develop into AFL stars, but most importantly a star team.

Like you BV, I'm hoping for the same:



We can't just go out there with all guns blazing week in week out, without paying any attention to the opposition going the other way; and of course instilling into the players how to identify the oppositions strategy and how to counter it, inately.

Well said BV.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Fair observations BV, but the stats might have been magnified a bit in junk time (which happily was the whole of the last quarter). It was nice to see us have a bit of luck in front of goal compared to our opposition. That game against Brisbane was a nightmare.

Great points BV.
Interesting to see how Pagan reacts tonight because you can rest assured that the dirty prick of a coach of Hawthorn will play numbers behind the ball.

I really do hope that we don't resort to a possession-based game as a counter to the flooding. The Eagles used more handball to break up the Swans' flood, and we used more offensive handball last week.

I also would prefer them to force loose defenders to be accountable rather than allowing them to stack our F50 with loose defenders.

Using midfielders running to the 50 would be one option, especially Simmo. If we can lock the ball in after points, then the pressure will tell. If they try to break too much after a point, we can hurt them on turnovers.

One of the benefits to us of their style of play is that Gibbs may well be forced up the ground for lack of a suitable forward for him. He'd be ideal to have around the 50 m arc with his composure, evasive and disposal skills and decision-making.